nakatak wrote:Lillian Meeks passed away recently. Her funeral was yesterday.
The entire local family showed up and Brother Johnson gave a wonderful eulogy that was more like family home evening.
He stepped from the pulpit and came down to where the family was interacted with them personally and gave a really beautiful message.
It was like they had a private service right there.
The meal was tasty and everyone was uplifted.
How amazing that a sorrowful moment in life can be such a positive spiritual experience, because that is what happened yesterday.
nakatak
I have prayed about these matters also - and feel to provide sustenance to whomever the LORD SENDS! then I also am praying for the gift of discernment, as Pres. Nelson recently advised us to do.MollyMom wrote:Did you know about the new bishopric in the Gallatin Ward? It is Bishop David Marble, a relative newcomer from Texas. Our take on him is that we will have steady hands at the helm during whatever happens in the next several years. The First Counselor is Aaron Murray, another newcomer from Utah, I believe. Very warm and friendly. And the Second Counselor is Kevin Wayne, a fairly young old-timer who had probably been in the area at least 20 years. This bishopric seems to be a very good fit for the Gallatin area.
I like the division of labor concept, but don't believe we can set it up as a church thing. We need to be working closely with our communities and neighborhoods. If we do it mainly on a church basis, we will alienate everyone else and then you know where the mobs will be looking for food and prepper gear. In a dream I once saw myself handing out thick slices of warm bread to my neighbors, but that is only a beginning. We need to get everyone growing as much of their own food as possible, and we need to figure out how to raise grain on a large scale without modern conveniences.
I went to the thread you cited and I'm trying to understand it... but its a very interesting concept! I'm not the salesman type... but again, very interesting.Darren wrote:I'm working on "Number 3. Write a book." as an effort that I feel could bring high paying work for a group of people. Just as Stephen R. Covey became an industry on the how-to-do-it Success and Motivation Genera. I am trying so hard to get things in place to support a factory for the next and best version of what works in that genera. I and my friend are plugging away on the book, hundreds of pages have been written, I have some financial backers standing by, I just need more energy to bare upon this project to bring focus and value. I am looking for talent. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38137
For an idea to be marketable it is best if it is something unexpected, that can create a movement. Otherwise you may be overwhelmed by competition upon any success. This is what I believe I have.
Any ideas?
God Bless,
Darren
Ah, HELLO - welcome to the Wards! so glad to see you participating here.MollyMom wrote:Bro. Jones, I tried to change my username (set up years ago!) and could not discover how to do it. I would like to go by who I am, but am stuck with Molly, I am no longer a mother of missionaries, so I needed a new name. You know us though, the Wards!
Did your ward ever do that Self-Reliance group on entrepreneurship? We are doing a second one right now, and we have a great group with two awesome nonmembers. Most of us are hungry to learn more about ebook marketing. Would your son be willing to share some tips with us? Our whole ward just might come out for something like that! We are trying to get some other workshops like that lined up.
When Odin gave to the Nordic lost tribes of Israel his Law, the men were also told that besides focusing their minds on him by oath (Law meaning "Lo"-ing/Looking), they also had to take an oath to take care of (Love as "Lo"ve also comes from lo, which means your mind's focus) the daughters of God. This Law that brought the Nordic race together IN-Odin's-LAW (where we get the term in-laws) was called "Odin's Law" from that day forward, said in the Anglo/Saxon "Wed-Law" or Wedlock (just like "Wednesday" is Odin's day, Wedlock is Odin's Law). The young men must, quoting Jesus Christ, "bring your women to my Temple and there both give me your eye, as I have given my eye to my Father, then I will show you how to live together and give life together in a state purer than you knew when you were little children, for then you will BE Wed; and that is my name. Then you will live together in my Law: Wed-lock. Then you will have a father-in-law, mother-in-law etc." (from the book, Story of Our Law for Little Children)BroJones wrote: I do believe that one should have unconditional love towards one's spouse (joined in the Temple) - I think this is consistent with the Lord's commandment "Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shall cleave unto her and none else."
Hope that explained it.(“Work by the Law” by Bruce Wydner, pp.67-69)
The Specific Customs of the First Gilds
Let’s say that our man is born in the “Sock,” the “Seek,” or “Tenship,” or “Parish,” or “Commune” of “Odinsvi Socken” in Sweden in the year 300 A.D. (The name means “Oathen’s Temple Lot Parish,” is still called that today, and is the birthplace of a man whom I know.)
When the child of whom we talk learns to speak he will learn of the visit of the Oath to the Nordic Race, over 200 years before. Every “Son-day” (that is what the name has always been in Scandinavia, “Son of God Day”) he will go to the church building (the “kyrka”) with his family and the neighbors of his “Seek.” There they will sing in the way He and his “song-smiths” taught them, and learn His LAW. In doing this they will solemnly eat “meat” (all “food” is still called “meat” in Scandinavia) and drink “mead,” in their communal effort to mentally seek His guidance to help them learn His LAW. Once he eats that meat and drinks that mead, in that township, he is eligible to become “free,” but the ACT that makes him “free” is still far in the future.
That “meat” and “mead” will have, been “withheld” from the diet of parishioners. Those ‘parishioners are merely observing the customs which they saw their parents do, as those parents saw their parents do, etc., back to the time of the Visit at Lake Law when they were told to do so by “the Oath.”
Everybody who does “seek” the “sake” of the Law, then, “looks to his Own” and “withholds” that meat and mead from his diet, at the request of the leadership of the commune, to be used as the elements of the communion.
He learns from early youth that the Oath hung upon the tree of Life and poured His soul out till death, to see His seed. “And, who were His seed?” “Those who look to Him, as He looks to His Father.”
When the Oath came to Lake Law and gave His Law, to all men, through the Ephraimic nations, called, “Teutons” or Germanics, it was but one word: “Look!,” a pronunciation that is preserved for us still in the phrase, “Wed-lock” in English, meaning “Woden’s Law.” In Finnish the word for “Law” is still, “Lock-ee,” a cognate of this word, that is pronounced, “Log,” in Swedish, and that is mutated by the Danish pronunciation of that original word, that leaves off the final “-g, of the Swedish pronunciation, which pronunciation was spelled, “Law,” in English.
“Law” is simply “Look!” meaning, “Look to the Son of God with your mind’s eye!” “What is the ‘purpose,’ then of all Law; if one so ‘seeks,’ what is the ‘sake’ of that seeking?” “You’ll live forever.”
The “Law” is “Look!” The Sake of Law, its purpose is: “You’ll live forever.”
As this child in Sweden, of 300 A.D., approaches the age of accountability for his acts, he finds how all of the Customs that he learns are merely an expansion of those few basic thoughts which he has learned. They include such diverse things as: the Yuletide, Easter, burials with gravestones, counting, reading, writing, singing etc.
He learns that if a man is heroic he “holds” to seeking the face of God: in German a “hero” is a “holder,” “ein Held.” In Finnish a “seek” or “township,” at the weekly meetings whereof one learns all of these Customs, of “holding to seeking the face of the Lord,” is still called a “holder.”
Among the Angles, Saxons and Danes one learns that all that one acquires in this life, through the ministration on that person by the Holy Ghost, made possible by one being born again, as a son of God, by beginning to Look to the Son of God, is one’s “FREEHOLD.” That is his Life, Liberty and all of his Properties. No one may take that Freehold from him, except the council of twelve who judge by unanimity those in the group of townships to which his belongs.
Then, at the age of accountability, he is “dipped” under water, to emphasize that now he must begin consciously looking to God, in order to be “born again,” so that the Holy Ghost may continuously minister upon him, to teach him all things.
Youth In The First Gilds
After being dipped under the water at the median age, of childhood (as was King Harold Fairhair, as told in his Saga), and after having hands laid on his head, to give him the godly gift of the Holy Ghost (in a manner similar to that incident when the Oath laid his hands on the heads of the original Twelve in Asia City, as told at the beginning of the Ynglinga Saga) the child looks forward to the next incident in his life, that will mark the beginning of the final part of his boyhood, at the end of which he may become a “Free Man.”
That next incident is when he becomes a formal “Learner,” called an “apprentice” in the Middle Gilds, in England, which word came from the Norman French for, a “learner.”
The Oath had said, “For this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” “How may a man on this Earth help the Oath bring about eternal life for Mankind?” He may teach the “Guthspjal,” to all whom he meets, and in everything which he does, in imitation of the Lord to whom he looks.
“What of ‘immortality’?”
“Immortality” means “un-dying-ness.” “Mortality” means “dying-ness.” The Lord commands all of his followers to mount their every effort to help Him, with every bit of the time and talent that comes to them, in His constant struggle against the “dyingness” of Mankind.
“How can one do that?”
The Oath taught his people, at his visit with them, the basics which they need to understand in order to save Mankind from its “dying-ness.” These are the skills and crafts that would thereafter make of them the “industrialized” people of the world, in contrast to all others, who are the “non-industrialized.”
Reading and writing in beech or book wood, in the alphabetic runes that the Oath had taught them, are general to all of these skills and crafts; but for a Nordic youth to follow the Oath in His work, of opposing the “dying-ness” of mankind, that youth must pick one of the particular craft skills taught to his people by God and become proficient in it.
So the “Lore” or Learning to which he is exposed is all calculated to help him look to the Lord so strongly that he will see what it is that the Lord would have him do with one of these particular craft skills.
When the youth believes that he has found it, perhaps in association with a blessing pronounced upon him by one of the “Patriarchs of the Human Race” (see the chapter after next), associated with his people, he chooses that craft skill that is to be his life’s work. Then the selection process begins with his father, his father’s brothers, his father’s cousins etc., to find for him the best man now knowledgeable in that craft skill to teach it to him so that he may attain for himself that goal for his life’s work that he has seen.
Apprenticeship
The young man wishes to live in God’s law, Woden’s Lock, Wed-lock, so at this time, during his apprenticeship he is helped to meet the young ladies of his and neighboring communities.
These communities were founded with the view to help him be successful in life, so he is helped to meet the other apprentices from his and the neighboring communities, whose work he might emulate, or with whom he would wish to work, in the future.
This all happens against the backdrop of lively folkdances, in beautiful folk costumes, to the beautiful music of early Europe, set in the setting of that most beautiful land crowned with the beautiful chalet-type architecture and Gothic-cathedral-type church buildings from which the buildings of North Europe originate.
All of these activities are facilitated by the fact that this apprenticeship is coordinated at the level just higher than that of the commune. That is, at the “county” level, to use American words. That which opens up all of this scope of activity to all of these youth is the fact that they had all begun to take the communion in their communes, at an early age, and none of them had been ex-communi-cated, from so doing. But this new, expanded, level of activity for them, at the “county” level, is to help them prepare from the great, solemn event near in their futures now, their FREEDOM.
Freedom
A young man in Sweden, in 300 A.D., would get his Freedom at the Temple or “Hof” of which the “shire,” in which his county is included, is the district served thereby.
It may be that he is “wed” very near to this time when he receives his Freedom. Certain it is that he would not be able to enter the temple, nor be “wed,” nor more have successfully fulfilled all of the requirements of his Apprenticeship, had he not been at least outwardly, observably faithful to the promises made every time he had taken the communion, ever since the first time he took the communion in his home commune. But now, having so been faithful, and having completed the requirements of his Apprenticeship, he may now enter the Temple, yet a youth, but emerge therefrom, a “Free” man.
“What it is that he does therein that makes him a ‘Free’ man?”
Toward the end of the temple ceremony he makes his “Oath.”
“What is that?”
He tells Almighty God how, with all ability available to him, he will use the craft skill, which he has learned, for that part of the work of the Lord, which the looking to the Lord, which he began in his early youth, has shown him is that which the Lord wishes him to do.
This is a happy, joyous time, beside being a solemn one. And, after the young man has made this Oath, he is FREE.
One’s Worklife
Listening to the words of the young man’s Oath, as those words are spoken in solemnity in the Temple, are men from the “lodge” (the “commune”) where the young man will at least begin his worklife. They are the witnesses to what he has said. Their witness thereof can be of enormous value to him and his community. For if he, indeed, produces, as he has promised God that he would, it can be expected that, barring an unforeseen misfortune, his life’s work, that he described in his Oath, will become a reality.
If a man produces $200,000.00 worth of goods and services per year, as so many do today in the USA; and if a man does so for 50 years; the production of his lifetime is $10,000,000.00. The product of a group of 1,000,000 men so doing (and there are a number of cities and almost every state in the USA with that many working men in them) is TEN TRILLION DOLLARS. With that amount, at their disposal, it could be thought by some that a group such as that would be getting themselves into a position where they could “take over the direction of the Economy of the World.” And that amount is at their disposal, to the extent that they know that the oath of each individual, to so produce, will be fulfilled. This is the secret of the control of the World’s Economy, by the Customs of the Nordic Race.)
The Energy Behind The Customs That Are Law
With this “secret” now said, we have before us, on paper, the burden of International Law. It is merely that an individual man of the Nordic Race makes an Oath, in the Temple, that he will perform in the specified manner alluded to above, in relation to one of those craft skills taught to the Nordic Race by God, during His visit to them. That Oath makes him “Free,” and he remains Free as long as he holds to the faithful performance of that Oath.
Multiply that Oath by all of the individual men of the Nordic Race, from the Rhine River to the Ural Mountains, from the line of the Danube River, Black Sea and Caucasus Mountains north to the Arctic Ocean, in the great “Key Reich,” or Church, of the Oath, and include all of the individual persons living in that area, for over three centuries, from the start of the Christian Era, and you have the Energy behind the Customs of the Nordic Race that have made them the International Law of the Earth.
JUNE 1984 THE FRUITS OF PEACE
The Fruits of Peace
By Patricia T. Holland
Listen
The Lord has said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5.) He also said, through Paul, that “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, [and] peace.” (Gal. 5:22.) It is about the fruit of our effort that I wish to speak—the fruit of love and joy, which is ultimately the fruit of peace. It is a harvest that can only come in the Lord’s way. Its roots are deep in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It seems tragic to me that women are often their own worst enemies when they ought to be allies, nurturing and building each other. We all know how much a man’s opinion of us can mean, but I believe our self-worth as women is often reflected to us in the eyes of other women. When other women respect us, we respect ourselves. It is often only when other women find us pleasant and worthy that we find ourselves pleasant and worthy. If we have this effect on each other, why aren’t we more generous and loving with one another?
I’ve thought long and often about this. I have finally come to suspect that part of the problem is the heart! We are afraid—afraid to reach out, afraid to reach up, afraid to trust and be trusted, especially with and by other women. In short, we don’t love enough. We don’t exercise to full capacity the greatest gift and power God gave to women.
Dr. Gerald G. Jampolsky, a psychiatrist from the University of California, tells us that love is an innate characteristic. It’s already there. But too often it becomes clouded over with fear, which, through life’s experiences, we’ve conjured up ourselves. He says, “When you feel love for all, not just those you choose, but all those [with] whom you come in contact—you experience peace. When you feel fear with anyone you come in contact with, you want to defend yourselves and attack others and there comes the conflict.” (Gerald Jampolsky, Love Is Letting Go of Fear, New York: Bantam Books, 1981, p. 2.)
Obviously, we have a choice. If Dr. Jampolsky is right, we can choose love and experience peace, or choose fear and experience conflict. Quoting again from Dr. Jampolsky, “In order to experience peace instead of conflict, it is necessary to shift our perception. Instead of seeing others as attacking us, we can see them as fearful. We are always experiencing love or fear. Fear is really a call for help and therefore a request for love. It is apparent then that in order to experience peace we do have a choice in determining the way we perceive things.” (Ibid.)
Moroni made the same observation. He maintained that he was able to overcome fear because he was full of charity, which is everlasting love: “Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear.” (Moro. 8:16.)
If the fear of other women and/or men causes our conflict, and unconditional love for them brings us the valued peace we so desire, then shouldn’t the whole pursuit of our lives be to extend love everywhere and to everyone? Doesn’t it make you want to put every ounce of energy you have into the practice and pursuit of perfect love?
But just desiring to love doesn’t necessarily make it happen. Those who try hardest will be most aware of falling short. I encourage you not to be discouraged. I have on occasion prayed to love someone better only to find a greater division come between us temporarily—but from which eventually, and with much work, grows a deeper, more tender love. Erich Fromm has written, “Because one does not see that love is an activity, a power of the soul, one believes that all that is necessary to find is the right object—and that everything goes by itself afterward. This attitude can be compared to that of a man who wants to paint but who, instead of learning the art, claims that he has just to wait for the right object, and that he will paint beautifully when he finds it.” (Erich Fromm, quoted in Secrets to Share, sel. Lois Daniel, New York: Hallmark, 1971, p. 59.) Love is like any other talent, art, skill, or virtue. It takes practice, perspiration, knowledge, and plenty of time. Willingness does not imply mastery, but it does mean we are willing to try.
In my younger years, I nurtured tender dreams of becoming an accomplished pianist. Reaching such a goal requires daily exercises, performances, recitals, trial and error, trying again and again for many years. We might view the pursuit of lasting love and perfect peace in exactly the same way—except that the Lord tells us that charity is the greatest of all talents, gifts, and virtues. Without it, “ye are nothing.” (Moro. 7:46.) That scripture contains a classic, crucial observation about self-worth. To be anybody, you must love everybody.
Now, getting back to the “practice” of love, I would like to suggest three basic exercises to develop this gift.
Exercise One
Exercise number one is to forgive. Forgiveness is the key to peace in personal relationships. If you can somehow wipe the slate clean and see everyone as blameless, you will begin to see yourself as blameless. Remember Dr. Jampolsky’s observation about fear and love. It might help you to forgive others their offenses and attacks against you if you can see that they were operating out of fear and not malice.
At one time I worked with another woman in the presidency of an organization. She often teasingly belittled me, but because it was done in jest she felt she could get away with it. However, it became a great source of hurt and irritation to me. While trying to practice this concept of forgiveness, I realized that every time I received a jab in jest, it was because of an inadequacy this sister felt in herself. I really believe that she was a frightened woman. In the privacy of her own life and out of earshot or eyesight from me, she was so busy nursing her own hurt that she simply was not able to consider anyone else’s. In some unfortunate way, I believe she felt she had so little to give that any compliment or virtue extended to another would somehow demean her. She did need my love, and I was foolish to take offense.
President Spencer W. Kimball has counseled that as we try to overlook whatever others have done to us, we begin to let go of all that has been hard to forgive in ourselves. We will feel peace, and wholeness, and we will remember that the Lord suffered for our sins so we could experience at-one-ment with him, our neighbors, and very importantly, within ourselves. (See Faith Precedes the Miracle, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1972, pp. 190–96.)
Exercise Two
Exercise number two is to accept others unconditionally. What we want most of all is the approval, praise, and unconditional love of others. Can we give less than what we desire for ourselves? One day my feelings had been deeply hurt by a close neighbor. Feeling what I was sure at the time was deserved self-pity, I went to my room and poured out my broken heart in prayer. I remember specifically saying, “Dear Father in Heaven, please help me to find a friend whom I can trust, one with whom I know I’ll be safe, one who deserves my confidence and my love.” He did bless me—he gave me, for a moment, the uncluttered insight that can come only by the Spirit. He helped me to see that I was praying for a “perfect” friend, while he had generously surrounded me with friends whose weaknesses were like my own.
A good relationship is not one in which perfection reigns; rather, it is one in which a healthy perspective simply overlooks the faults of others.
I would like to give you a very specific way to practice this exercise. For one day, make a note each time you critically evaluate someone. This doesn’t have to be a spoken criticism (though this, too, should be considered), but it’s important to note each time you pass even unspoken judgment. Judgments might be passed against yourself, your own children, husband, neighbor, or friend. Then the next day, see if you can go the entire day without being critical or petty toward anyone.
This little exercise might surprise you. My husband will verify that I conscientiously work at never speaking ill of anyone. It is a virtue I earnestly seek, and I see it as fundamental to true Christianity. When I undertook this little exercise, therefore, it amazed me to realize how often I did pass judgment, at least mentally. I was even more amazed to note how incredibly good I felt about myself when I was able to get through a whole day keeping that tendency in check. Remember that whatever you toss out mentally or verbally comes back to you according to God’s plan of compensation: “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” (Matt. 7:2.) A critical, petty, or vicious remark is simply an attack on your self-worth. On the other hand, if your mind is constantly seeing good in others, that, too, will return, and you will truly feel good about yourself.
Exercise Three
Exercise number three is to give without any thought of getting. Now, I don’t mean for you to be a martyr in any way. But to be totally accepting of others, we must accept the fact that they cannot satisfy all of our desires. People can only be what they are—at least for the present. They can give only what they have at that moment to give. They may not have had as much knowledge of or practice at love as you have had. Yet when we want them to give us something they cannot give, we feel frustrated, angry, despondent, ill, rejected, or attacked.
For a long period of time in my life, there was a woman I admired very much whose unconditional love I would have cherished. I tried everything I knew to win her love, but nothing seemed to work. Then I read one day that the first principle of good mental health is to accept that which cannot be changed. I finally understood that this woman did love as much as she was able—and suddenly our entire relationship changed. It was more formal and restrained than I would have liked, but it was a relationship. If it had continued with my demanding more than she could give, it would surely have withered and died. In a sense, I had nurtured that particular plant in too small a pot. So I repotted it in a container more suitable to its size, gave it more room for growth, and it began to flourish. I could see that the fruit in this relationship was well worth some one-way nourishing, and I’m content now to wait until she is ready to give.
I want you to know that when I have practiced these exercises effectively, it has produced a miracle.
I used to be very shy. It was quite painful for me to make a move every two years or so as we were pursuing my husband’s career. Each new move was filled with fear. Would I be accepted? Would we live where people were more qualified than I? Would we live in a neighborhood where people could give their children more opportunity? With several of our first moves, we had lived in the new area only a few months (and I was still striving to establish a new identity) when I would be called to serve as the ward Relief Society president. God must have smiled as he saw that it took several repetitions of this same experience before I was able to see that at the precise moment I began to practice my love on the sisters and their families in these wards, I immediately lost all fear. It is my personal witness that if, instead of seeing life through the vainly colored lens of getting, we would practice changing our focus to unrestricted giving, we would forget about fear and conflict and begin to know real and lasting peace.
Those are my three exercises. Yet, even as I encourage you to practice, you must know that the demands of the real contest can be staggering. The suggestions I offer for minor conflicts, hurt, or irritations may not help much if someone took the life of your child, or stole the affections of your husband, or intentionally hurt you in some other unjust way.
In light of those greater needs, I bear this witness: There is in this world much that can be accomplished only with the help of God. If he tells us to love, he will give us the power to do so.
Perhaps you have read Corrie Ten Boom’s book, The Hiding Place. Have any of us been asked to experience the intensity of such injustices as she describes? Have we experienced the numbing fear of war, of prison camps, of the death of family and friends? Following is an excerpt from her book in which she relates an experience just as the war has ended. She has been released from prison camp, and her only desire is to teach her people that the way to rebuild is through love. Then she faces a startling and unexpected challenge:
“It was at a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former S. S. man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing center at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there—the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of our clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.
“He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. ‘How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,’ he said. ‘To think that, as you say, He washed my sins away!’
“His hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.
“Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him.
“I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.
“As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.
“And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.” (New York: Bantam Books, 1974, p. 238.)
Moroni taught the same principle: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ.” (Moro. 7:48.)
This perfect love, the kind that brings real peace, is “bestowed.” It is a gift given from our Father in Heaven in answer to the prayer of faith. We often will have no ability or power beyond our ability to plead for God’s help.
May I conclude by describing a sisterly relationship that may be the most sacred in all of scripture. Never before or since have two women—friends, neighbors, and in the same family circle—been chosen to bear such responsibilities. Their roots had to be deep, for the fruit of their loins would be the fruit of peace for an entire world.
I have always been touched that in her moment of greatest need, her singular time of confusion and wonder and awe, Mary went to another woman. She knew she could go to Elisabeth. I have also been touched that age is no factor here; in God’s love there is no generation gap. Mary was very young—probably in her mid-teens at most—and Elisabeth was well beyond her child-bearing age. The scripture says she was “well stricken” in years. (Luke 1:7.)
Yet these two women come together, greeting one another in a bond that only women can know. Indeed, it was their very womanhood that God had used for his holiest of purposes. And in the special roles they have been destined to play, these two beloved women—representing both personally and dispensationally the old and the new, sing to each other even as the babe in the womb of one leaps in recognition of the divinity of the other.
Elisabeth is not petty or fearful or envious here. Her son will not have the fame or role or divinity that has been bestowed on Mary’s child; but her only feelings are of love and devotion. To this young, bewildered kinswoman she says only, “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
“And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:42–43; italics added.)
Mary also knows that humility and selflessness are the watchwords. She knew that when she said to the Angel Gabriel, “be it unto me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:38; italics added.) And here to Elisabeth she sings, “My soul doth magnify the Lord. … he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.” (Luke 1:46, 51; italics added.)
This exchange between these two different yet similar women seems to me the essence of love and peace and purity. Surely the challenge for our day is to be equally pure in our womanhood. When we pollute the powerful potential for love with our pettiness and our fears, then disease replaces emotional health and despondency replaces peace.
As women, we have the choice and privilege to connect ourselves to God in a way whereby we draw his nourishing love down to our very roots. Such peace and power can then be extended to others. Like Mary, whose sweet joy and terrible burden could not be self-contained, each of us could find an Elisabeth to turn to if we would live for that relationship.
Like the cycles of trees and roots and branches, a woman’s love can be one eternal round. When we love the Lord, we love each other; and when we love each other, we love ourselves. Then the harvest is indeed the fruit of peace.
With only a shift in his pronouns, I share this concluding thought from George MacDonald:
“This love of [God and] one’s neighbor is the only door out of the dungeon of self. To have herself, to know herself, to enjoy herself, this she calls life; whereas, if she would forget herself, tenfold would be her life in God and her neighbors. The region of woman’s life is a spiritual region. God, her friends, her neighbors, her sisters all, is the wide world in which alone her spirit can find room. Herself is her dungeon.
“[In giving to others never] shall a woman lose the consciousness of [her own] well-being. Far deeper and more complete, God and her neighbor will flash it back upon her—pure as life. No more will she agonize to generate it in the light of her own decadence. For she shall know the glory of her own being in the light of God and of her sisters.” (George MacDonald, Creation in Christ, Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, 1976, p. 304.)
We report to the New Jersey Morristown mission, on April 18th. We are en route now...EmmaLee wrote:Wonderful! What a happy and exciting thing for you and your wife! My parents served three full-time missions after they retired and they loved the people in those areas dearly. May we ask where to, and when you report? All the very best to you both, and to your family.
Small world! That's one of the missions my parents served in a couple of decades ago. They loved the people there - served mostly with less-actives. Kept in touch with some of those folks for many years after coming home. Congratulations and God speed, Elder and Sister Jones! :ymhug:BroJones wrote:We report to the New Jersey Morristown mission, on April 18th. We are en route now...EmmaLee wrote:Wonderful! What a happy and exciting thing for you and your wife! My parents served three full-time missions after they retired and they loved the people in those areas dearly. May we ask where to, and when you report? All the very best to you both, and to your family.
Thanks for asking!
Brother JonesBroJones wrote:Cogitating - ideas for earning beaucoup bucks in a small town --
1. Mouse control -- I need to hire someone fast!
2. Healthy cookies and drinks - like wheat grass drink, and vinegar drinks... i'm serious
2b. -- An empath could help a lot of people by doing private "unofficial" naturopathic treatments...
Close relative is paying a lot to such a person in Penna
3. Write a book. My son Nathan is succeeding with his latest trilogy
See Amazon, Nathan Jones, "Fuel", "Shortage" and "Invasion" - he's making around $150-200 a day now!
4. Snow removal and lawn mowing
5. Firewood - I need some.
More ideas?
Dear David -David13 wrote:Brother Jones
Thanks for the ideas there.
I have two goals. To remarry, and to move to Utah, not necessarily in that order.
I'm just about to decide if I should now move to Manti in the next few weeks.
But I will have to look at that area in Missouri after the information I see here.
And I will have to work.
Having now been in Los Angeles 45 years I'm ready for a small town, and Manti is a nice small town with a big Temple.
Congratulations to your son at doing so well. There are so few opportunities there for young people, yet he seems to be doing well
dc
